J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1802-18 Academician and professor > West Country and Yorkshire 1814-17 > Devonshire Rivers, No.3, and Wharfedale ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Okehampton Castle from the South 1814

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Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Recto:
Okehampton Castle from the South 1814
D09814
Turner Bequest CXXXIV 22
Pencil on white wove paper with gilt edges, 179 x 254 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘cattle’ and ‘stone’ left of centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘2[?2]’ bottom right (very faint)
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CXXXIV – 22’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Okehampton Castle, seen here to the north from the West Okement Valley, was built soon after the Norman Conquest and developed further in the fourteenth century,1 comprising a keep on a mound or motte with a complex of other stone buildings on a bailey to the north-east; the ruins appear much as they did in Turner’s time. The castle stands on the edge of Dartmoor beside the West Okement River, on the outskirts of the town of Okehampton, which is situated just downstream to the north.
There are other views of Okehampton and its castle on folios 50 recto, 51 recto, 60 recto, 61 recto, 62 recto, 63 recto and 64 recto (D09854, D09821, D09871, D09815, D09868, D09816, D09872; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 56, 29, 70, 23, 67, 24, 71), and probably also on 65 recto (D09797; Turner Bequest CXXXIV 8). There are also numerous studies in the Devon Rivers, No.1 sketchbook, probably in use at the same time; see under Tate D09526 (Turner Bequest CXXXII 43).
1
See [Katy Carter (ed.)], Heritage Unlocked: Guide to Free [English Heritage] Sites in Devon, Dorset and Somerset, London 2004, p.89.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
July 2014

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Okehampton Castle from the South 1814 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, September 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-okehampton-castle-from-the-south-r1147419, accessed 26 April 2024.